For the Better
by candyazngirl
Summary: Marik can't sleep at night so he thinks about what his other half did to his life. Oneshot, not angst


**A/N: Just a short thing I wanted to do.**

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For the Better

There wasn't a day, where Marik didn't look back at Battle City tournament.

After Yami Malik was expelled from his being, Marik found picking up the habit of talking to thin air whenever he was alone. It comforted him. He understood why even when the Puzzle was gone, he could see Yugi talking as if he was talking to the Pharaoh. Odion and Ishizu displayed their concern for him, as they did not fully believe that the evil alter ego was truly gone.

But they were wrong, Malik was gone.

All the sounds that gathered in the back of his head were now just white noise. It was like he was watching a channel that didn't exist anymore, expecting something through the cloud of fuzz and sound.

There was no reason for Marik to feel longing for Malik and there were certainly no physical infatuation with the alter ego. The Egyptian did appreciate his body every so often in the mirror, but he still couldn't fathom how he could ever love Malik. First of all, the alter ego ruined his family, or rather what was left of his family. Malik had murdered Marik's father to amuse himself. Secondly, Marik wasn't even gay. He looked like he was a flamboyant homosexual and he did indeed dress like one, but he was not gay.

"Then again," Marik said to himself as he did his dishes. He owned an apartment, located in Domino City. There was nothing left to protect back in Egypt so in a way, he did get his freedom. "If I were to love him, wouldn't I love myself? Then it wouldn't be a homosexual relationship, it would be an asexual relationship."

Marik amused himself with these thoughts and ponderings. He was used to sharing them with Ryou or Bakura, but the Spirit of the Ring was now gone as was the Pharaoh. Marik would talk about these things that felt deep, but then switch the topic again to something much more comfortable to talk about. It wasn't as if he wanted someone to tell him that his ideas are stupid or anything. He just wanted to hear himself talk.

He would talk to himself while he did chores that bored him out of his mind, like cleaning or laundry. It made him seem insane, but no one who actually visited him ever thought of him as sane. Not even his own sister, Ishizu, would think about Marik being insane even with Malik gone. It didn't really bother Marik. He would continue to do things as he pleased. He was happy with that.

"Even though my life is boring and simple now," Marik said to himself quietly as he lay down in his bed to think. He looked outside of the window to remind himself that he wasn't stuck underground anymore. "I think I like this life better than being stuck in a tomb all day."

He still remembered those days with his father like they were yesterday. He remembered how his father would talk about his duty and how that he had no other reason for living than that cursed predestined life. Marik didn't see sunlight. He had to breathe in the stale air of a tomb. The days were dreary and long. At night he would either receive a beating by his father or had to listen to Ishizu talk about the visions of the future she would get every so often. Marik really believed that his sister had an ability to view into the future even without her Millennium Necklace around her neck. It might have been her womanly instincts that made her predictions so dead on.

With two family members that so blindly believed in the word fate, Marik knew where Malik had come from. Malik came from the fact that Marik was denied the thing that he needed most…a choice.

Sure, Malik was born from hate and anger, but if Marik was given the choice of his future, then he could have outgrown Malik. But his relatives kept feeding coal to the flame, by denying his desire to see the outside world. If he needed to blame anyone for the reason why Marik's mind was in shatters, it would have to be his father and sister. Odion was probably the only decent relative Marik had left if you cut out those two.

"I wonder how he's doing now," Marik would say as he continued to think. He remembered how Ryou described his 'conversations' with Bakura. They never appeared in front of each other, but Bakura would sometimes talk in his head. Marik didn't share that type of relationship with Malik.

When he was thinking about Yugi's relationship, Marik was glad that he wasn't like that with Malik. If he was then he would be more insane than he was now. He would try to punch the air and only be greeted with a laugh that frustrated him. It would be just like how Bandit Keith had set a fire by trying to hit a hallucination of Marik. He didn't need that kind of stress on his shoulders.

Marik rolled to the side. It was going to be one of those nights where he can't fall asleep. He saw it coming from a mile away so he got up and looked in the box that Ishizu had given him. She said that they were old possessions that he had when they were in Egypt, which didn't make any sense. Marik didn't have anything other than the comic book he picked up one day.

He had put it in his room and planned to open it, but time had passed and Marik had forgotten all about it. Only now, in the midst of his boredom did he think of opening the box.

Marik peeled away the packing tape and opened the box to find that there was actually a numerous of things and not just one comic book. Then he found something strange. He had never seen it before, but it had given him a cold feeling. He traced his finger tips over the binding of the book. He opened the book to find it was yellowed with age. He turned the page and found that this was a diary of some sort.

_Dear Journal,_

_ That's right. It's not a friggen diary._

Marik raised his eyebrow and smiled. He finally knew who wrote the thing. He wrote it. There were even crudely drawn pictures of Odion and Ishizu. There were barely any pictures of his father. The diary was a present that Ishizu had given him from her trips to the surface. Of course, only his sister would be able to leave since someone needed to fetch the food.

While Marik flipped through the pages, he found that there was a picture that looked a lot like him, but it was different. Well, for one, since it was only a picture he drew when he was younger, it didn't have the awesome midriff that he did now. The hair was different along with the overall expression.

"Huh," Marik said as he started to read the text below. It was hard to read the bad handwriting, but he found that this page had a different tone than the other pages. The words were basically carved into the page. Marik could tell that the person that wrote this was angry.

_**Trapped. I hate them. If they die I can go free.**_

Compared to the other pages, the words were dark and short. Marik figured that it must be his other half that wrote this. It wasn't hard for anyone to figure out. The sudden shift in personality that expressed the pain that Marik didn't want to admit. He traced the words.

"He did save me," Marik said softly to himself. The sudden feeling of ache came from his back. It was a reminder of his father, something he could not get rid of without some major surgery. He could feel the abuse of the whip and the feel of the heated blade digging into his back. He was doomed to live his life with his abusive father underground.

He was trapped. There was no denying it.

Marik always wondered if his Yami improved his life, the answer would usually be no. He would think to Bakura and Ryou, and Yami and Yugi. Ryou would say that Bakura made him stronger and so would Yugi. Even though Yami was gone now, it always seems that he was by Yugi's side now. They had changed for the better.

Marik looked out the window and saw the moon clearly. It was a full moon and it was shining brighter than ever. He smiled at it and realized that the freedom he had now, was because of his Yami. Sure, Malik caused problems, but he did set Marik free of his father.

"You're not so bad after all," Marik said.


End file.
